Safety landing for moving sidewalk



Feb. 26, 1957 M. A. KENDALL ET AL 2,732,895

\ SAFETY LANDING FOR MOVING SIDEWALK Filed June 1, 1955 2 SheetsShee:. 1

INVENTORS. W QM M. A. KENDALL ETAL 2,782,89

SAFETY LANDING FOR MOVING SIDEWALK Feb. 26, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 1, 1953 SAFETY LANDING FOR MOVING SIDEWALK Myron A. Kendall and Alfred D. Sinden, Aurora, Ill., assignors to Stephens-Adamson Mfg. Co., a corporation of Illinois Application June 1, 1953, Serial No. 358,837

3 Claims. (Cl. 198-16) Belt conveyors have long handled various materials, and to a limited extent have handled passengers, but human nature brings problems in passenger transport by belt conveyor that are unknown to material handling.

For instance, in a recent installation of a moving sidewalk, the end guard or landing by which the passengers take off from the belt included a steel plate adjusted so accurately to the curve of the belt that a thin pencil lead would roll on the belt against the plate and never bind. Nevertheless, it happened, and frequently, that teenagers Levis caught between the belt and the steel plate. The friction of the rubber or the belt being high and the friction on the steel being low, the cloth of the Levis was rapidly pulled in between the steel and the rubber, and worn away. Once the cloth started between the belt and the steel, the progression was fast, and the wearer was caught. 1

Extended observation showed that the teenagers enjoyed having the belt push them up on the takeoff landing, which often brought heel pressure on the belt as it approached the steel, and that pressure was enough to distort the rubber of the belt and let the fabric enter between the rubber belt and the steel.

The principal object of this invention is to protect passengers against those accidents. Generally speaking, this is accomplished by providing a guard or landing with an edge piece of yielding material such as rubber, for example, that will yield with the heel pressure and maintain a closed seal with the belt. Also, it is important that the edge piece should be substantially incapable of being curled under to assume a trailing position with respect to the transport surface, but at the same time permit objects which may enter the sealing gap to be removed merely by deflecting the resilient edge piece upwardly.

In the drawings illustrating the general nature of the construction and a specific preferred embodiment:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a transport belt with a landing or guard embodying a preferred form of. the invention.

Fig. 2 is a somewhat diagrammatic vertical section through a portion of the belt and landing assembly shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a specific embodiment for one particular installation;

Fig. 4 is a detailed layout of the form of resilient sheet making the actual seal with the transport belt in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged layout of the upper metal plate which clamps the resilient sealing strip to the landing.

But these specific drawings and the corresponding description are used for the purpose of illustrative disclosure only, and are not intended to impose unnecessary limitations on the claims.

ath 0 7 2,782,896 Patented- Feb. 26, 1957 ice veyor running over a conventional supporting pulley or The landing or takeoif includes a plate or idler 11. transfer surface 12 on the platform or floor, and sealing means including a strip or edge piece 13 of rubber-like material, and upper and lower fastening strips 14 and 15 secured to the plate 12 and the edge piece 13 by rivets 16..

The edge piece 13 projects forwardly toward the conveyor 10, and has a concave surface 17 complementary to the curved surface 18 of the transport belt 10 as it rounds the end pulley, and that curved surface 17 is in substantial wiping contact with the adjacent surface of the belt, although it is not necessary that there be actual frictional contact at all times.

The curved surface 17 intersects an upper surface 19 to form an edge 20, which is slightly rounded.

In use, when the foot pressure or heel pressure of a passenger comes onto the edge piece, it yields enough to hug the surface of the belt closely, and thus prevents any thread of a passengers garment from getting started between the belt and the edge piece.

In other words, the transport belt 10 being of rubberlike material, necessarily yields somewhat under foot pressure, and if a passenger attempts to ride from the belt to the safety landing without lifting his foot, there is momentarily an increased clearance between the belt and the edge piece, but substantially instantaneously that same foot pressure is transferred to the edge piece and closes the gap so that the desired sealing relationship between the landing and the belt is effectively maintained.

As pointed out above, since a person who attempts to ride from the transport belt to the landing without lifting his foot tends to open up a gap which might cause articles to be caught in the sealing gap, it is highly desirable to discourage this practice of riding directly from the belt on to the safety landing. This is accom plished quite effectively in the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2 wherein there is a pronounced downward inclination or depression of the forward edge of the landing assembly so that the shoe of the passenger will span the depression and move directly on to the landing itself, or at least, the rear portion of the edge piece. Experience has taught that it takes a very awkward and unusual attitude for a person to have his or her heel to ride into the depression because by the time the heel reaches the depression, the sole of the shoe has already reached the landing, and the momentum of the body tends to lift the heel from the belt.

Figs. 3, 4, and 5 show a special embodiment made for a particular condition.

In Fig. 3, the landing includes a plate 21 on a suitable supporting beam or the like 22 beyond which it projects, and is made fast by screw bolts 23 to a bottom plate of stiff material 2.4 and a filler piece 25. This presents a shouldered shelf to receive the inner portion of a resilient edge piece 26 overlaid by a stiff plate 27 and made fast by screw bolts 28.

The overlying plate 27 has its edge portion 29 sloped as indicated at 30 (Fig. 5), rounded as indicated at 31; and its lower surface 32 extends downwardly at about an angle of four degrees to give that plate a gripping action on the resilient edge piece 26. It will be noted that the bottom plate 24 extends substantially closer to the arcuate surface 33 of the edge piece 26 than does the upper plate 27, with the result that downward curling of the sealing lip is inhibited while permitting the edge piece to be deflected upwardly when objects are caught in the sealing gap and are to be removed.

The resilient edge piece 26 has a concave surface 33 complementary to the adjacent tread surface of the transport belt 10, and is intended to be in substantial wiping relation, though minute clearance when unloaded is permissible, for under load there will be suflicient yield to close the contact.

That curved surface 33 intersects an upper, short, convex surface 34 substantially as shown in Fig. 4, and forms a sealing edge 35 well adapted to direct the shoe of the passenger off the belt 10 and guide it onto the surface 29 of the stiff plate 27 to the end that, if a passenger merely stands on the transport belt as it approaches the landing, the friction between the belt and the shoe will force the shoe to ride over the edges 34 and 29 of the plates 26 and 27 without leaving any gap between the edge piece and the belt for the admission of the passengers clothing.

The rubber-like material for the edge pieces 13 and 26 preferably should have a hardness corresponding to that of the transport belt. Durometer hardness between 50 and 70, on the average about 60, has been found satisfactory.

If rubber is used for the edge piece, it may be natural or synthetic or a combination of the two. Some of the vinyl resins such as those used in water hose have about the right characteristics, as also may other resilient materials.

Although the invention has been described with particular reference to a passenger conveyor system, it is obvious that the invention has utility in other types of conveyor systems as well. safety landing may be employed at an intermediate position of the belt by appropriately offsetting the landing upwardly, or the belting downwardly.

We claim:

I. In a conveyor system, the combination of an endless conveyor having a continuous ribbon belt presenting a relatively smooth transport surface moving in a forward direction, a landing at least a portion of which is in longitudinal alignment with the transport surface and including a fixed support, and means for closing the space between the transport surface and the landing in the area where transfer between the transport surface and the landing is to be effected, said means including a flexible strip extending across substantially the entire width of Also, it is apparent that the said transfer area and having one edge anchored to the fixed support and a relatively pointed sealing edge projecting in a rearward direction over the transport surface in close proximity thereto with said sealing edge being positioned only slightly below the level of said transport surface whereby articles or foreign matter tend to ride over the sealing edge, but if entering the gap between the flexible strip and the transport surface tend to deflect the sealing edge of said strip upwardly away from the 'transpOrt surface rather than downwardly into engagement with it, said flexible strip having a stiffness at least as great as rubber of durometer hardness 50, whereby any tendency of said sealing edge to curl under and assume a trailing position is substantially eliminated.

2. A conveyor system as set forth in claim 1, in which the means for anchoring the flexible strip to the fixed support includes a rigid top member overlying the strip and extending from said support to a line spaced from said sealing edge for limiting upward deflection of the sealing edge of the strip.

3. A conveyor system as set forth in claim 1, in which rigid plate members, anchored to the fixed support, are positioned above and below said flexible strip and extend rearwardly to points substantially spaced from the transport surface for rigidly supporting the forward portion of said flexible strip, with the lower plate member being relatively close to the transport surface and the upper plate member farther removed therefrom, said plate members permitting the sealing edge to deflect upwardly as required when objects become lodged in said sealing gap, and preventing downward deflection of said sealing edge to the extent that said sealing edge would assume a trailing position with respect to the forward travel of said transport surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 639,154 Dodge Dec. 12, 1899 972,475 Seeberger Oct. 11, 1910 2,016,104 Cooper et al. Oct. 1, 1935 2,080,980 Fiedler May 18, 1937 2,285,321 Zademach June 2, 1942 

